Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. –Proverbs 3:9-10

The book of Proverbs gives us a very basic principle of success. It is this: If you want God to honor you and bless you in any area of your life, you’re going to have to honor Him in that particular area.
If you want God to bless you financially, you’re going to have to honor Him with your money, or as this verse puts it, with the firstfruits of all your increase. In other words, you’re going to have to tithe.

Ken and I know that from experience. When we started our life with the Lord, we were in terrible shape financially. And we stayed that way for several years because we failed to tithe consistently. Oh, we tried to tithe, but we’d never last long at it.

Then, one day, we made a quality decision that we were going to tithe no matter what. That’s when we started coming out of trouble financially. When we began honoring God with our money by tithing, He began to help us in that area in miraculous ways.

You may say, “Well, Gloria, I just can’t afford to tithe right now.”

But let me tell you, you can’t afford not to! If you don’t start honoring God with your money, you’ll be in the same financial position next year that you’re in today.

So do it—even if it looks like you can’t afford to. God is faithful! If you’ll honor Him by giving Him the 10 percent that belongs to Him, He’ll help you with the rest.

Give God His first. Do it in faith, expecting. As you tithe, worship Him and be grateful for what He has already done in your life. You’ll be amazed when you see what He can do.

Scripture Reading: Malachi 3:8-12

This message was written by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, the leader of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries (www.KCM.org) that specializes in teaching principles of bible faith – prayer, healing, salvation and other biblical topics.